Dora Greenwell
| birth_place = Lanchester, County Durham, England] | death_date = March | death_place = Clifton, Bristol, England | nationality = English | other_names = | spouse = | children = | known_for = | occupation = Poet }} Dora Greenwell (6 December 1821 - 29 March 1882) was an English poet. Life Greenwell was born at Greenwell Ford in the county of Durham. Her father, an active country gentleman, became financially embarrassed, and when Dora was 26 their home was sold. Poverty, want of a settled home for many years, and very poor health served to deepen her religious views.Blaikie, 82. For 18 years she lived with her mother in Durham, and, after her mother's death, chiefly in London. Greenwell began her career as an authoress by the publication of a volume of poems in 1848, the year that she left Greenwell Ford. It was well received, and was followed by another volume in 1850, Stories that might be True, with other poems. A third volume appeared in 1861, and of this an enlarged edition was published in 1867.Blaikie, 83. Her next volume of poems was called Carmina Crucis 1869). These were her deepest and most characteristic effusions, ‘road-side songs, with both joy and sorrow in them.’ She afterwards published Songs of Salvation (1873), The Soul's Legend (1873), and Camera Obscura (1876), all in verse. Her principal prose works, The Patience of Hope (1860), A Present Heaven (1855, reissued in 1867 as The Covenant of Life and Peace), and Two Friends (2nd edit. 1867, with a sequel, Colloquia Crucis,’ 1871), are full of deep and beautiful religious thought. A volume of Essays appeared in 1866, consisting chiefly of pieces that had appeared in periodicals, and included "Our Single Women," originally an article in the North British Review, February 1862, in which she earnestly pleaded for the extension of educated women's work, with a due regard to their appropriate sphere. Another of her books was a Life of Lacordaire (1867), with whose character and views she was in many respects in close sympathy. She also wrote a memoir of the quaker John Woolman (1871), and Liber Humanitatis: Essays on spiritual and social life (1875). An accident in 1881 seemed seriously to impair her delicate constitution, and she died on 29 March 1882. Writing To the American edition (1862) of the Patience of Hope a preface was prefixed by Whittier, who classed the writer with Thomas à Kempis, Augustine, Fénelon, John Woolman, and Tauler. Whittier says of Miss Greenwell's work: "It assumes the life and power of the gospel as a matter of actual experience; it bears unmistakable evidence of a realisation on the part of the author of the truth that Christianity is not simply historical and traditional, but present and permanent, with its roots in the infinite past and its branches in the infinite future, the eternal spring and growth of divine love." She is often compared to Christina Rossetti. Critical introduction by Alexander Hay Japp The most noticeable characteristic of Miss Greenwell, as a poet, is quickness of thought, wedded to striking originality of form and subtle sweetness of verse. She is utterly unconventional in her movements, and now and then touches boldly a new chord. Though she was one of the most interested and active in many philanthropic and social movements, this did not, as in so many other cases, exercise a deteriorating effect on her poetry—at all events, not directly. The same thing can hardly be said of her religious tendencies, which induced a strain of mysticism; and thus had the effect of throwing over much of her work a kind of dreamy haze, such as would have been ruinous in destroying all clear outline, and becoming merely sectarian had it not been for the colours of which she made it the medium. One of her friends — herself a poet — has pointed out that she had the same passion as Charles Kingsley for all that was tropical and glowing — rich and spreading palms, rich and potent scents; and that, in her whole nature, there was a love of what was free and lavish. The width and healthy outflow of her human sympathies did much to save her from the fate of the pure mystic. One of the most remarkable sections of her work is that collection of poems titled Songs of Salvation, in which she shows quite an exceptional power of uniting a high religious teaching with a kind of dramatic realism of portraiture of simple characters by monologue and dialogue, marked by the utmost truth and directness. Her faculty in ballad was surprising, and almost beyond expectation, as may be seen in “The Battle Flag of Sigurd,” where there is action, and keen sense of movement. Her prose bears almost the same marks, and has the same range. In The Two Friends, and in The Patience of Hope we have simplicity and now and then force fitted to carry home practical truths; in Colloquia Crucis and The Soul’s Legend we have it affecting the level of prose-poetry. Her articles in The Contemporary Review, on “Our Single Women,” etc., and her papers on “Imbeciles and their Treatment,” a subject in which she took a profound interest, should not, however, be forgotten. The Life of Lacordaire — full of subtle insight and biographic sympathy — shows Miss Greenwell at her best as a prose writer. Perhaps Carmina Crucis shows her at her best as regards poetic form. In some respects, this is the most remarkable of Miss Greenwell’s works. There is in it a glow of colour and light, a passionate throb or thrill of devotion, of spiritual elevation and expectancy. She has entered largely into the joys of the soul; these are but promises, prophecies of fuller joys to follow; and the forms she finds to embody and express her “sanctified emotions” are richly musical, and sometimes recall the finest turns of her friend, Christina Rossetti. She shares with Dr. George MacDonald the tendency to parable. She will accept nothing for itself, but must translate everything into a text for religious truth. The experience of the soul is the first thing with her, and must find a language. Her exceeding desire to interpret exceptional phases of spiritual experience has operated against the popular acceptance of her poetry as a whole; but there is much in it that beyond cavil belongs almost to the first rank, or at the lowest, must take a very high place in the second; for she was undoubtedly original, had a fine sense of music, and in her more important poems exhibited a happy instinct for new forms and musical terms and phrases.from Alexander Hay Japp, "Critical and Biographical Essay: Dora Greenwell (1821–1882)," Women Poets of the Nineteenth Century (edited by Alfred H. Miles). London: Routledge / New York: Dutton, 1907. Bartleby.com, Web, Feb. 10, 2017. Publications *''Poems''. London: William Pickering, 1848; Edinburgh: A. Strahan / London: Hamilton, Adams, 1861. *''Stories that Might Be True''. 1850; London & New York: A. Strahan, 1866. *''Carmina Crucis''. London: Bell & Daldy, 1869; Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1869; London: W. Isbister, 1874 **revised (with introduction by Constance L. Maynard). London: H.R. Allenson, 1906. *''Songs of Salvation''. London: Strahan, 1873. *''The Soul's Legend''. London: Strahan, 1873. *''Camera Obscura''. London: Daldy, Isbister, 1876. *''Selected Poems''. London: H.R. Atkinson, 1906. Non-fiction *''The Patience of Hope. Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1862; London: Gibbings, 1894. *''Two Friends. Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1863. *''A Present Heaven: Addressed to a friend''. Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1864 **also published as The Covenant of Life and Peace. London: Gibbings, 1891. *''Essays''. London & New York: A. Strahan, 1866. *''Lacordaire''. Edinburgh: Edmonston & Douglas, 1867. *''Colloquia Crucis: A sequel to 'Two Friends'.'' London: A. Strahan, 1871. *''John Woolman. London: F.B. Kitto, 1871. *The Power of Prayer'' (with P.T. Forsyth). London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1910. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:Dora Greenwell, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Feb. 10, 2017. See also *List of British poets *List of English-language hymnists References * . Wikisource, Web, Feb. 10, 2017. * * * Notes External links ;Poems * "The Blade of Grass" *Dora Greenwell at CyberHymnal (2 hymns) *Greenwell in A Victorian Anthology, 1837-1895: "A Song of Farewell," "To Christina Rossetti" *Dora Greenwell at Hymnary (6 poems) *Greenwell in Women Poets of the Nineteenth Century: "Home," "The Battle-flag of Sigurd," "Daria," "The Man with Three Friends," "The Eternal Now," "Demeter and Cora," "Bring Me Word How Tall She Is," "“Qui sait Aimer, sait Mourir," "The Soul's Parting," "Gone," "Life Tapestry," "To Christina Rossetti" * Dora Greenwell at PoemHunter (7 poems) *Dora Greenwell at Poetry Nook (12 poems) ;Audio /video *Dora Greenwell at YouTube ;About * * Greenwell, Dora Category:1821 births Category:1882 deaths Category:English poets Category:Women poets Category:British women writers Category:People from Lanchester, County Durham Category:19th-century poets Category:19th-century women writers Category:Christian hymnwriters Category:Christian poets Category:English-language poets Category:English hymnwriters Category:Hymnists Category:Poets